WASHINGTON – Remember how Democrats were gonna slap Gary Miscondit upside his well-coiffed head when they got back in town last week? Their fearless leader Dick Gephardt even floated the possibility of booting him from the Intelligence Committee.
Well, we’re still waiting.
Before Labor Day, Hill sources leaked to the press that several Democrats planned to publicly denounce Miscondit. We were even told that Gephardt planned a pow-wow to deal with the defiant Mr. Blow Dry.
Looks like we were spun. Gephardt now says Miscondit’s
fate is between him and his constituents.
Sure, Gephardt has previously rebuked Miscondit, calling his behavior “disturbing and wrong.” “Unacceptable,” chimed in Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I. He’s “an embarrassment,” Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., finally admitted. Even party chairman and Clinton crony Terry McAuliffe thinks he should have been more “straightforward.”
But the outrage stops there. And considering the timing, it’s disingenuous at best.
Democrats sat back and yawned for nearly four months while Miscondit stonewalled and left Chandra Levy’s parents twisting in the wind. Only after Democrats saw that he couldn’t pull off a Clinton-style comeback on prime-time TV did they step up and condemn him.
Truth is, Democrats aren’t mad at Miscondit for being a lying lecher. They’re mad at him because he’s not as smooth a lying lecher as Bill Clinton.
They were hoping he would salvage his electability and continue to guarantee them that California seat. Once they saw his poll numbers plunge, they figured he wasn’t worth the collateral damage anymore.
Clinton, as president and fund-raiser-in-chief, was worth circling the wagons around. Despite all of Clinton’s crimes and lies, not one of them (including Miscondit) broke ranks during impeachment. Miscondit, on the other hand, is just 1/435th of 1/2 of 1/3 of the federal government.
Then again, he was still one less seat Gephardt and McAuliffe had to worry about in their quest to take back the House from Republicans, who hold it by a razor-thin margin. Hey, there may still be a chance for Miscondit … Anything can happen between now and November 2002 … Heck, voters just might forget … Chandra who?
That thinking may explain why Democrats have distanced themselves from Miscondit publicly, but have yet to cut him loose. All the talk of disciplining him was just lip service. And I bet the rumors of Democrats pressuring their tin-earred colleague to resign are just more spin.
At a minimum, Gephardt should remove the clearly reckless Miscondit from the Intelligence Committee, where he gets Top Secret and even code-word security briefings. Not because he’s open to blackmail – you’d hope that all the dirt is out on this scoundrel – but because he’s a potential bribery target. Miscondit, who has few reported assets, is racking up huge legal bills. Besides expensive Washington lawyer Abbe Lowell, he also retained a high-priced Washington publicist, though he recently let her go.
But Gephardt seems content with the status quo, security risk or not.
With each new scandal, I am astounded anew at how Democrats can compartmentalize personal sins, even crimes, when their party power is at stake. Their own morals, not just Miscondit’s, are showing – once again.
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Previous stories:
Condit legal counsel breaks her silence
Smith details Condit phone sex
Levy probe shifts to prisons bureau?
Has Condit forsaken his faith?
Reporter’s notebook: Cornering liars
Reporter’s notebook: On Gary, Gray and FBI
Crime rate high in park near Levy
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